BEAUFORT, Jan 4 — The contest for the Kimanis parliamentary seat will just be between two former Bongawan assemblymen seeking to avenge their defeats in the last general election.

Parti Warisan Sabah’s Datuk Karim Bujang will face his successor, Datuk Mohamad Alamin, in the January 18 by-election here.

The two showed up at the Dewan Datuk Seri Panglima Dun Banir within 30 minutes of each other, with Alamin arriving at 8.40am while Karim showed up at 9.10am.

After vetting their nominations, returning officer Jupari @Jupry Etok announced the candidates to loud cheers outside the nomination hall where crowds of supporters gathered.

Karim, 66, was earlier accompanied by Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and other Pakatan Harapan leaders, both local and national, while Mohamad, 48 was chaperoned by Umno deputy president Datuk Mohamad Hasan and other Barisan Nasional leaders.

Karim was a five-term assemblyman for Bongawan, four of which were with Umno, before he was dropped in favour of Alamin in 2013.

This by-election was triggered by the election petition he filed alleging discrepancies in the vote casting process in Kimanis.

In the 14th general election, former Umno minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman had won the seat with a narrow 156-vote majority, securing 11,942 votes against Karim’s 11,786 votes while another candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, had obtained 1,300 votes.

In August last year, the Election Court nullified Anifah’s win, a decision which was upheld by the Federal court later in December.

Polling will take place on January 18, with early voting on January 14.

This is the tenth by-election since the May 9 general election last year.

The southwestern district of Kimanis has 29,664 registered voters. Of these, about 67 per cent are Muslim Bumiputera consisting of mostly Brunei Malay, 30 per cent are non-Muslim natives (mainly of KadazanDusun ethnic) and three per cent are Chinese and others.

Kimanis consists of the Membakut and Bongawan state constituencies, both of which are held by ruling party representatives. Membakut is held by former Umno leader Datuk Ariffin Arif, now in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, while Bongawan assemblyman is Warisan’s Dr. Daud Yusof.

It is considered a semi-rural seat with rudimentary infrastructure.